(opens in new tab)While we are awaiting the arrival of the first LTO-9 (opens in new tab) tapes, US-based OWC has unveiled an LTO-8 tape drive called the Mercury Pro LTO (opens in new tab) - and it stands out for a number of reasons.
It is one of the few that is equipped with a Thunderbolt-3 (opens in new tab) port (two actually) and can even charge a laptop (up to 85W) and connect to an 8K monitor (opens in new tab) or docking station (opens in new tab).
For comparison, the competition tends to have an SAS (serial-attached SCSI) interface, which is popular in enterprise and large businesses but not amongst prosumers.
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There’s also a useful staging feature that allows you to add an SSD (opens in new tab) or HDD (opens in new tab) of your own to enhance your workflow and for extra backup capacity.
Speaking of capacity, each tape offers a native capacity of 12TB with 30TB compressed storage (using an industry-wide standard compression ratio of 2.5:1). Native transfer rates can reach 360MBps native or up to 900MBps compressed. And as for pricing, you can get LTO-8 tapes for less than $100 (opens in new tab).
The OWC Mercury Pro LTO tape drive retails for $4,499 (roughly £3,500/AU$6,300) without any staging drive, but with OWC’s myLTO software, a free LTO-8 tape and a cleaning tape.
It is significantly more expensive than comparable devices, but is worth the extra premium given the additional features it offers, such as a 5-year warranty and lifetime support.
OWC has confirmed that the drive should be upgradable to LTO-9, which offers 50% extra capacity and much higher sustained transfer rates, assuming the form factors and interfaces remain the same.
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Bear in mind
- If this product is unavailable in your region, you may need to use a specialist parcel forwarding service.
- If you've managed to get hold of a cheaper product with equivalent specifications, in stock and brand new, let us know and we'll tip our hat to you.
